Of Conceptions and Preconceptions
by Bineshii
Summary: When as a teenager, Trip Tucker learned about preconceptions from Mr. Velik,  Velik also had to discard some of his own preconceptions.


Disclaimer: No filthy lucre changed hands

**Of Conceptions and Preconceptions**

By Bineshii

"Challenge your preconceptions or they will challenge you" – Trip Tucker quoting Mr. Velik, his Vulcan tenth grade biology teacher, who intimidated him.

**Year 2155…**

Trip Tucker held the restaurant door open for Molly. It was such a piece of luck that he had run into an old high school classmate outside the Vulcan Embassy in San Francisco. Molly had been applying for an interplanetary passport that would allow her to visit the home world of the Trill, which was accessible only through the Vulcans at this time. She was excited because this would be her first trip off world and Trip who was a veteran space traveler, could give her some advice. They had decided to discuss it over lunch.

Their table overlooked the bay. Molly filled Trip in on her college studies and her subsequent career, then asked him about his engineering exploits. She had heard much about the Enterprise missions in the media, especially their heroic efforts in the Expanse. Knowing of the loss of his sister, she steered the conversation away from current events and back into their high school years. Both of them had spent only part of their high school days in California. Trip had lived there with his aunt for two years to take advantage of better technical training than was offered in his Florida high school. They remembered one very special teacher and Molly's mind drifted back to those days…

**Year 2135…**

The test was not easy. They had to calculate the percentage of the island population that might have blue eyes. Trip had left his calculator on his aunt's kitchen table this morning and finishing this test was going to be impossible without one. But the school rule was: if you forgot it, do with out it. The teachers had a conspiracy going in trying to teach the students responsibility. Didn't any of them ever forget anything? Of course they did. Trip was practically run over by Mr. Stevens rushing back home to get his lesson plan one day. If Mr. Stevens was going to forget things, he aught to work out in the gym so he wouldn't be out of breath when he made it back just as the bell rang.

Mr. Velik was never out of breath and he noticed everything. Trip could never put anything over on this stern Vulcan, but he sure would like to today. Molly slid into her seat across the aisle and removed her pens and calculator from her bag. "What's wrong Trip," she whispered so pointed ears would not overhear her.

"Forgot my dang calculator," Trip whispered back behind his hand.

Molly palmed her calculator and passed it over to Trip. "I don't need it, really."

"Hey, you can't mean that," Trip whispered.

"It's ok, I have an extra one," Molly said, pretending to suppress a yawn with her hand.

Mr. Velik passed out the test papers. He had noticed the whole exchange between Trip Tucker and Molly MacCabe. As he sat back down at his desk, he wondered how this situation would play out. Both students bent their heads over their tests and Velik was expecting to see the calculator pass back and forth between them. If he did not notice any collusion on the test, he was going to let this incident slide. He did not see the calculator leave Trip's desk once. Well, it was Molly's decision, and she would have to deal with the consequences. Velik was not going to reduce his standards in grading the test.

That afternoon when the students went home, Velik got a cup of tea and started grading the stack of test papers. He worked without looking at the names, though the handwriting usually gave the paper's owner away. Molly had very bold and precise writing. He tried not to recognize her paper, but he did, and her paper was perfect. The calculations were even carried out beyond the decimal place that the students' calculators were calibrated to. How strange. How completely baffling. You'd almost think the child was Vulcan.

In class the next day, Velik watched Molly. There was something very strange about this Human child. In strong sunlight, her skin took on a slight greenish tinge, though not nearly as deep as his own. Her long fingers handled a pen as if they had competent Vulcan strength. And a time or two, when he had had his back to her, it seemed she had moved with Vulcan speed. Turning toward her a second later, her face would be all innocent stillness. That in itself was Vulcan-like. He must be hallucinating, he thought, _I like the profuse variety of life forms there are to study here on this world. It is so different from the_ _relative lack of diversity on my home world. But_ _I need to go home over summer break. I need to surround myself with my own people, and get away from Humans. Not that I don't like Humans, I really do. But they grate so on Vulcan nerves sometimes. They really challenge us, challenge our preconceptions_.

Molly watched Mr. Velik_. He suspects something. I am between an eighth and a quarter, but surely he can't see that? Well then, he is a biologist, used to studying the details of living things. I will have to be more careful, repress my impish tendency to use my Vulcan strength and speed behind people's backs. And I have to keep these sunglasses handy to cover my eyes when the class goes outdoors. It would not do to have my inner eyelid descend and for another Human, to notice. _

Molly thought of herself as Human, mostly Human but with a little something more. Mom and Dad were so matter-of-fact about the Vulcan heritage. Her mom had the ears, well, a little. Her mother's ears tapered to a small rounded bit instead of a sharp point. Mom, who was a quarter, had married Dad, a second cousin, who was an eighth. That should make Molly somewhere between them, right? About three-sixteenths? But genetics were funny. Neither of her parents had the inner eyelid, though they obviously carried the gene for it. Dad's blood was red, Mom's was green, and hers was, well, kind of muddy colored. Molly, with her very Human ears, eyebrows, freckles, and red hair, was physically stronger than both her parents.

A shadow moved across her desk and startled Molly. "I see you have lost concentration again." Mr. Velik had the habit of appearing from nowhere and quietly observing. Most teachers did, even Human ones. Trip Tucker, across the aisle gave her a quick conspiratorial look and bent closer over his paper. Molly both hated and liked Mr. Velik. She would love telling him about what they had in common, but that would violate the code of silence that Great-Grandfather had insisted on. A hundred years after First Contact, why did they still have to hide their mixed heritage? Why did her relatives with one breath tell her to take pride in her Vulcan genes and with the next breath, tell her it was dangerous to admit to it?

"Mr. Velik, do any Vulcans have red hair?" Molly was trying to distract him from the fact that she had not made much progress on her description of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

The space between Velik's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "What has that got to do with monarch butterflies? Red hair does not have any genetic relevance to your butterflies."

Mr. Velik was really trying to be humorous, in a Vulcan way; Great-Grandfather was like that. "No, there is not any relevance. I was not thinking of butterflies as you noticed or you would not be standing over me at the moment. Still, it is a biological question, therefore logical to bring up in this class." Molly tried for her best poker face with this utterance because there were repressed smirks from various students all around her. Tony Frazier was tapping a rung on his desk with his toe and Trip Tucker was pretending to yawn into his hands.

"Then, I think it is logical for me to answer your question so you can return your focus to the butterflies. Yes, a few Vulcans have red hair. And like with Human genetics, red hair is a recessive trait in Vulcans." Mr. Velik took a step and then turned back to Molly. "As to freckles, I have not noted any on the Vulcans I have seen with red hair."

The ample crop of freckles on Molly's face stood out more whenever she blushed, like they did right now. She had never liked her freckles, but Mr. Velik could not know that unless he was one of the few Vulcans who were telepathic beyond touch. "I tried to bleach my freckles off when I was a little kid and obviously that didn't work. I suppose that if I had Vulcan blood, I would not have to have these freckles!" This was a daring outburst that Molly had not meant to make. She wanted so much to learn more about Vulcan heritage, but didn't dare approach the subject directly.

Mr. Velik's face softened. It was a softening perceptible to other Vulcans, so only Molly noticed that he was affected by her embarrassment. "Molly, there are people that Vulcans are in contacted with who have spots on both sides of their face which extend all the way down their bodies to their feet. Those spots are very becoming and almost all the people on their world have them. The Trill are secretive about something, which we suspect has to do with their biology, but they are not embarrassed about their spots. I will bring in some photos of these people so you can see that they look very much like Humans and Vulcans. They are, in fact, curious about Humans. Would you mind me taking a photo of you to show when I next meet some of them at an interplanetary biology conference?"

"Sure Mr. Velik that would be ok," Molly said.

The bell rang as Mr. Velik walked off up the aisle. It took only a minute for the students to clear the classroom. Mr. Velik was a person to be avoided as soon as possible by his Human students. Perhaps it was because he did not adopt any Human mannerisms or speech patterns; he remained very mysteriously Vulcan. The students did not realize this was on purpose. Velik found many Human mannerisms and phrases quite charming and it took great effort not to use them, for he was an apt mimic. But he wanted to remain very Vulcan, so his students would get used to his people and be comfortable visiting his world someday.

Before leaving school that afternoon, Velik admitted to the health teacher in the faculty lounge: "I would like to get a blood sample from Molly. She is another example of the very strange varieties that occur among Humans. Do you think that would be acceptable? Should I get her parent's permission?"

Madeline Evans responded as she packed up her briefcase: "You must ask her first, and yes, it would be necessary to get her parents' permission, as she is a minor. What kind of research are you doing now? More genetic markers in blood groups?"

"I was just curious as to what her heritage was exactly."

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"I did. She said 'Probably Irish and Scottish and other generic European'. Very imprecise. I think there is something other than that, and I would like to know what part of Earth it is from."

Madeline turned in the doorway, smiling at Velik. "She looks just an ordinary American kid to me, but good luck."

An exchange took place the next day in a school hallway:

"Molly, would you mind letting me take a sample of your blood? I need one more Caucasian blood sample for a control group while I am studying the contrasting properties in samples of Australian Aborigine blood."

"No Mr. Velik. My family doesn't believe in letting our blood be taken at all. It is a religious thing, I think some Celtic prohibition from ancient times."

And later that day, another exchange took place in the faculty lounge:

"Madeline, have you ever heard of a prohibition of the Celts against having blood drawn?"

"Of course not Velik." Then Madeline laughed. "Those people were adept at drawing blood in ancient times. You are so gullible. Don't let these students run all over you".

Velik sighed. "They don't run all over me, they run away from me."

….

Six weeks from the end of the school year, a visit to the beach was planned for the biology class. Molly's family lived near the stretch of beach Mr. Velik had chosen. When Molly asked her mother if she could just stay home that day and meet her class at the beach, her mother told her no, but volunteered to make lunch for them.

"But Mom, isn't that dangerous for us? You never come to school parent-teacher conferences."

"It will not be dangerous if we are very careful. I would like to meet at least one of your teachers and this seems the safest way. You must ride the bus to school as usual as I don't want you taking advantage of the situation."

A day at the beach was more agreeable to the students than a stuffy classroom. At noon, the class trooped across the road and up the hill from the beach to assemble at the picnic tables set out for them near Molly's house. Molly introduced Mr. Velik to her mother, who wore a scarf over her head and ears. Her mother also wore that pink blend of make-up she used when leaving the house.

"Doesn't Molly have a have a brother and sister?" asked Mr. Velik.

"They are being home schooled," Mrs. MacCabe replied. "And today they are off on their own field trip with some neighbor's home schooled children." When Mrs. MacCabe noticed the subtle look of incredulity on Velik's face, she added "We let Molly attend public school as a kind of experiment. We just wanted to see if it might work better for her."

Molly thought: _Right Mom. Give him the usual story. That way Dylan and Sarah don't have to wear their scarves too and make our family look like a bunch of pirates. I wonder where my dear siblings are hiding out today?_

Just then, Molly's father came out of the garage carrying an additional picnic table for a group of students still standing around on the lawn. Velik stared at Molly's father's strong hands as he effortlessly set down the heavy table and smiled at the students.

"Molly has her father's hands, I think," said Velik.

"Yes," Mrs. MacCabe interjected a little too quickly. "It seems to be a trait of those Scottish weavers he is descended from. They have been weaving tartan cloth for centuries on un-powered hand looms. It is a dying craft you see, quite in demand and quite lucrative for these artisans. People of Scottish descent, especially outside of Scotland, will pay high prices to obtain a kilt in their clan tartan. Weavers with large strong fingers like my husband can work very fast."

"_You lay it on thicker each time you tell it Mom. Someday somebody won't believe you,_" thought Molly.

Velik was not fooled; he knew there was something not quite right about this explanation. This had the same feel as when Molly told him about the blood taking inhibition. It was almost as if a fellow Vulcan was trying to tell a lie. Vulcans could, and occasionally did, lie, but it was not sanctioned culturally and was difficult for them. A lie could be detected if the prohibited mind meld was used and it was reported to still be secretly practiced by the Vulcan security forces. Velik was glad his people had mostly outgrown this barbaric practice, leaving Vulcans free to lie when they thought it was logical to do so, or when it was important to hide something. Velik now thought of the Human phrase 'it takes one to know one', and if he was correct, the MacCabe family indeed had something very important to keep hidden.

The class finished their lunch and thanked their hosts after being reminded to do so by Mr. Velik. They went back to the beach to finish studying the natural border communities of sea and land. Then Mr. Velik gave them an hour of free time before they were to board the bus and return to school.

Molly hefted the stone, then looked around to see if anyone was watching. The volleyball players were intent on throwing their own projectile over the net her father had set up for them. Mr. Velik was nowhere in sight. "That Vulcan must be off chasing hermit crabs or something," she muttered. "Good." And Mollly's stone flew swift and true, impacting on the back of Trip Tucker's neck.

"What the heck?" Trip spun around to find his attacker. No one was within a half mile of him. The volleyball players were not even looking in his direction. A girl in a red dress with her back to him was walking even further away down the beach - Molly probably, as he had noticed that great form revealing red number she was wearing today. She reminded him of that girl in his Panama City elementary school who he never got up the nerve to ask to dance. So maybe this stone fell from the sky? Stranger things had fallen from the sky: an alien ship a hundred years ago for instance, which had resulted in a chain of events that gave him Mr. Velik as a teacher. Anyway, this stone had a flat side, so Trip skipped it on the top of an incoming wave and headed toward the volleyball game.

Molly grinned. _That's for not giving me the answer to the hydra question Mr. Tucker. Hey, I lent you my calculator for that test. A trade is a trade, even if it was more of a cheat to give me the answer then to let you have the calculator. You didn't have to be so smugly ethical!_

Molly never got caught at these occasional uses of her Vulcan abilities. No one would ever believe that a skinny and awkwardly blossoming girl could do these things. Satisfied, Molly walked to the water's edge, unknowingly right past Mr. Velik who had been squatting behind a low dune tracking the path of a sand spider. But he had briefly looked up when his Vulcan hearing had detected soft footfalls on the sand, to observe Molly's efficient stone casting. He thought it unbelievable that this child was indeed Human. The evidence was accumulating to the contrary, or, thought Velik, he would have to challenge his preconceptions on the definition of the Human life form.

….

It was a harshly bright day in the last month of the term and everyone was glad to get outside for recess. Molly stood unblinking in the bright sun after coming out of the dark school hallway. Mr. Velik, who was walking behind his students, guessed why. His own inner eye lid had just descended. Before Molly turned back to face him fully, she extracted a pair of sunglasses from her backpack and covered her eyes.

Velik thought: _I know what you are doing Molly. It must be very dark behind two sun shields.__ Poor child, forever having to disguise your heritage as if it were something shameful. Will you ever be allowed to appreciate the heritage that I and my people take great pride in? You are disenfranchised of the Vulcan language, of the free use of your strength and mathematical abilities. Still, you are allowed your Human creativity and freedom of emotional release. At least you can openly enjoy that part of your heritage. It is a pity you cannot freely use all your abilities and revel in their combined strength. This Human/Vulcan genetic intertwining is a lottery winner in the universe as I know it. A conception which blows away preconceptions. It should be a welcome discovery for a people who cherished the thought of infinite combinations."_

Turning toward Mr. Velik, Molly stumbled over a crack in the pavement and smacked her face against the door. Her knees gave way and she sank to the ground trying to cover her nose. Velik squatted down beside her. "Molly, let me help you. You are dazed. Tilt your head back to stop the bleeding."

Molly pulled a tissue from her pocket and held it to her nose so Mr. Velik could not see the blood and said "I will be all right."

"Let me help you up. I will walk you to the nurse's office." Velik hesitated slightly, then touched her arm. He gently lifted her to her feet with his hand under her elbow and slowly walked with her to the nurse's office. The nurse made Molly sit on a bed, checked to see that Molly's nose was not broken, and gave her an ice pack. Molly then insisted on going to her next class, so the nurse let her leave. The nurse asked Velik to describe what happened for the school accident report and then went off to put it in a file. Velik reached down and picked up the discarded tissue. He bid good day to the nurse and hurried off to his lab because he now had his blood sample.

An hour later, Velik was still pacing the aisle nearest the lab window, not seeing the trees he was looking at, whose alien beauty had always captured his senses in the past. The spice tea he had made himself lay cold on the edge of a lab table.

"Impossible," he told himself, even though he had been almost sure of what he would find. Molly's mixed ancestry, like time travel, was a conception that Vulcan science considered impossible, but the blood analysis was undeniable. The evidence was that both parents must have Vulcan blood. Furthermore, the composition of the blood showed that the Vulcan genetic material had entered the Human population PRE-CONTACT: before OFFICAL first contact, that is. He must learn more, and he must keep this to himself for now. This knowledge would have consequences that he could not yet discern. Velik needed more evidence, more time to understand what he had now confirmed.

As Velik was analyzing his sample, Molly was writing a story in English class about a half-vampire girl who was trying to hide her identity. She assumed the first person and said "Just for once, I would like to go out in the sunlight without worrying if I brought my sunglasses. I would like to look up at the sun and then look directly into the face of my friend. Just for once, I would like not to flinch at the sight of blood, especially that of my mother and my brother. Just for once, I would like to run as fast as I can and not care who saw me do it."

….

It was the last assembly before vacation. The school had a special treat because a famous Vulcan scientist was visiting Earth and giving talks at several universities. That he condescended to speak at a high school was practically unheard of. "Maybe it is because we managed to obtain a Vulcan biology teacher for a couple of years," thought the delighted principal.

Dr. Somtok gave perfunctory acknowledgment to the profuse introductory speech of the school principal. He disliked fawning inferiors, though he did expect great deference from them. Velik had seated his class near the front of the auditorium and Somtok watched his fellow Vulcan disdainfully out of the corner of his eye. Dr. Somtok would never demean himself by teaching a group of primitive aliens, so this poor misguided Vulcan educator was somewhat of an embarrassment to him.

Somtok explained to his audience, through his translator, how he supported Ambassador Soval's contention that Humans should take exploration beyond their planet very slowly. Humans had much to learn about their interplanetary neighbors before they would be able to participate as equals in the interplanetary community. Interrelationships between alien cultures were a fine art and required more intelligence than Humans had so far shown. However, Dr. Somtok believed it was possible for Humans to someday evolve to the point where they could join the interplanetary community. Then Dr. Somtok told of Vulcan experiments with cross breeding plant life from different worlds, to increase the food supply on some Vulcan colony worlds. He ended his talk by asking for questions. A hideously red haired Human in the front row raised her hand.

Molly nervously addressed the scientist. "Dr. Somtok, if you can successfully combine plant genetic material, do you feel it will one day be possible for sentient species of different worlds to interbreed? Would it be possible for Humans and Vulcans…?"

Dr. Somtok sniffed and looked down at this impertinent Human. "No. Never. Hasn't your teacher told you how different the blood chemistry is between our species?"

Molly became indignantly persistent. "But those plants you described, they had very different sap running in their veins. They seem more different than Humans and Vulcans. What did you do with the crossbred plants you experimented with? Can you give one to our class to study?"

"No," Somtok glared at Molly. "It would have been dangerous to let them live outside controlled conditions. We destroyed them."

Molly blanched and sank slowly to her seat.

"Any more questions?" Asked the imperious Vulcan whose expression intimidated the audience. "No? Well good day to you." And without acknowledging the principal who rose to address him, Dr. Somtok strode out of the auditorium with his translator hurrying to keep up.

As Velik dismissed his class directly from the auditorium to the waiting buses, he contemplated the irony of the interaction between the great scientist and the child whose existence he had declared an impossibility. "_Neither of our species is ready for this, and yet it has happened. What a frightful existence it must be for Molly and her family_."

….

On the day before school was to let out for summer vacation, Mr. Velik took his class to a museum in San Francisco. He wanted them to see a diorama of the desert on his home world and a cityscape which showed the architecture of an Andorian city where the snow never completely melted. The bus had no sooner pulled up in front of the main entrance, than a harried museum employee leaped down the museum steps and breathless told the driver "There is a chemical leak in one of our diorama assembly rooms. We just discovered the chemical is toxic to Vulcans because a group of first graders from the Vulcan compound school has just been overcome by it. They and their teachers are laying in the hallway outside the diorama workroom. It is too early in the day to have our full staff here and we need help carrying the children to safety. Humans don't seem to be affected more than disliking the smell. Could your high school students run inside and help us bring these children out?"

Everyone on the bus stood up when Mr. Velik assented to the rescue effort. As Molly began to run up the museum steps two at a time, Mr.Velik gripped her arm. "Don't go in." He looked straight at her. "It is as dangerous for you as it is for me. More so, as you will be discovered for what you are."

Wide eyed Molly pulled away from him. "How did you know?"

Forcing her to sit on the museum steps by pulling her down beside him, Velik confided "I have known for some time and I have told no one. I will explain to anyone who asks why you are not inside, that I needed one student to help me here when they start bringing the children out. I will tell them I have instructed you in what must be done to revive them."

The high school students worked quickly. Thirty-five small Vulcan children were soon laying on the sidewalk outside the museum. As Trip Tucker laid an unconscious Vulcan boy in Molly's arms, he told her the child seemed to be breathing ok, then he ran back inside to get another child. Molly laid the child down in the recovery position as Mr. Velik instructed. Curious, it was the same position she and her siblings often assumed to go to sleep. She monitored their breathing and watched the natural color return to their little faces. One very small girl sat up and cried out for her mother. Molly held her close and rocked her until she stopped crying. Molly tried hard to pacify her own emotions because the child had her hand pasted to Molly's check with her fingers spread.

"It is ok to let her do that for a short time," Mr. Velik told Molly. "But only until she calms down. There are others who need comforting too."

"I know," said Molly. And by the look in her eyes, Mr. Velik knew that she knew.

Mr. Velik's biology class got only a short tour through the museum that day. As they ate their lunch in the museum cafeteria, Mr. Velik gave them an explanation of why this particular chemical was toxic to Vulcans. He also gave them some basics of Vulcan first aid.

Trip Tucker elbowed Molly "Like we ever will have a chance to practice it again, eh?"

On the bus back to school, Molly left her seat to join Mr. Velik who was sitting just behind the driver. She whispered so what she said could be heard only by Vulcan ears. "We have to stay hidden."

Velik lowered his voice to whisper back, "I understand the necessity."

"You will really keep our secret? You too think it is unwise to reveal our…origin at this time?" Molly wanted to trust in Velik's silence.

"Yes to both questions." Velik solemnly stated.

"Thank you. I did not want to be the one to expose over four hundred people to danger."

"Four hundred! That many? That is not from one ancestor alone, even after what, two hundred years?"

"How did you guess two hundred years and that there were others besides Great-Grandfather?"

Velik placed his hand over hers on the bus seat. "To be the percentage you are and from two parents, I calculated about two hundred years. I studied your blood sample. Yes I got one, your nosebleed. The four hundred you just mentioned couldn't all be from one ancestor, even with the rapid Human reproduction rate."

Molly sighed. "No. You have a defection factor. What attracted my great-grandfather has attracted others. They faked their deaths here or went home and secretly returned. They have more to fear from discovery than Great-Grandfather who is very old now and ill, and likely to be left alone out of compassion if discovered. I will keep your secret too. The secret that you know. My people have detained others that discovered us and wanted to reveal us. There is danger for you if they know that you know."

Velik felt a shiver go down his spine. "There is no one of my people who knows, vows silence, and is allowed to come and go between your people and mine?"

Molly shook her head slowly. "Not that I know of."

….

Family members were allowed to visit the school on the last day of the term. Eight year old Lizzie ran ahead of her parents and threw her arms around Trip who lifted her off her feet, and then set her back down. "You are too big for me to pick up any more. But your hair is just the same, so long and soft. How are you doing pumpkin?"

Lizzie pulled Trip's head down so she could give him a big smacking kiss on the cheek. "I missed you so much Trip. Don't go away again. I have so much to tell you and show you. It's gonna take all summer to do that. Do you really have to come back here again in the fall and stay another year?"

"Fraid so. Oh, this is Mr. Velik and Mrs. Sanford, two of my teachers."

Mr. Velik looked down at the eager young face and said "Glad to meet you, Lizzie."

He was charmed by the beautiful child, thinking this was a Human girl who might be a real distraction for unbonded Vulcan males someday. Some Humans had that effect and that must be why there were families like Molly's.

So the school year ended and Trip went back to Florida for the summer. Molly's family went off to her home town for a visit and Mr. Velik went with them. He knew he was taking a great risk, but with the backing of the MacCabe family, perhaps things would turn out all right.

When the fall term began, Mr. Velik had a new crop of students. He met Trip and Molly in a hallway while they were discussing the difference between space flight and atmospheric flight. Trip was certain that bees had a hidden property as their bodies were not aerodynamic. There must be something else hidden in their anatomy, like an extra wing, or their wing had an extension that folded away, and no one had yet discovered it. Mr. Velik stated that bee's did in fact fly, and did so with those tiny wings. He looked at Trip and told him to challenge his preconceptions. In fact, many times during that fall term, Mr. Velik waxed eloquent on preconceptions.

"What happened to him over the summer?" was Trip's question to Molly. "He seems a different person."

All Trip got out of Molly was a sly smile and "You're cute Trip. Need to borrow my calculator again?"

**Year 2155…**

Trip looked down from the restaurant window on the bay sparkling in the early afternoon sunlight. The rich ice cream was a real treat. Perhaps they could add this flavor to the stock on Enterprise. Molly spooned up the last of hers and cocked her head slightly. "So, when are you off into space for more adventures?"

"In about three weeks. I will spend most of that time with my parents. My fellow shipmate and friend, T'Pol will be coming with me."

"You have a Vulcan friend?" Molly was surprised.

"Yes, we have been through a lot together over the past few years."

Molly's face brightened perceptively. "You don't know how good it is to here that Humans and Vulcans are forming friendships. I have a special interest in that."

Trip gave Molly his best impish smile. "Oh? And does this interspecies friendship interest include the guy with the spots I saw you with? You were talking to him just before you turned to enter the Vulcan embassy."

Molly's freckles stood out when she blushed, but she did not break eye contact with Trip. "Yes, he is a Trill, and in fact, Velik introduced us."

"Old Velik is still around? I would have thought he returned to Vulcan long ago."

"No, he still teaches here on Earth. Actually, he teaches in my home town now. He brought his family from Vulcan shortly after we finished high school, when his daughter was quite small and now she is attending Princeton University. He does various biology research projects with the people in my home town. They have a unique heritage. Velik's wife helps with his research as she is a medical doctor, a real asset to our isolated community. It is too bad you did not get to know him outside of the classroom. He is a good friend of my parents now, and a good friend of mine, actually."

"Well you don't say!" said Trip. "But I think he would still intimidate me."

A Vulcan woman who was scanning the room spotted Trip and came over to the table. "Hello T'Pol," smiled Trip and turned to his lunch companion. "This is Molly, an old high school friend."

T'Pol took a seat next to Trip as she gazed across the table. "Hello Molly, good to see you again. I didn't know you were an old friend of Trip's."

"Hello, T'Pol. Thank you again for your kind offer a couple of years back concerning Great-Grandfather. But he wanted it here, where his heart was. We now have an ancestor repository like back on… Does Trip know anything? I haven't told him. So many people know now that I think it will be out in the open soon. It has to happen sometime, and I hope it will be ok for us."

Trip frowned. "Am I the only one here in the dark about something?"

T'Pol reached for the glass of water Trip had not touched. She took a sip and glanced from one to the other, finally settling her eyes on Molly. "I told him a story once about a Vulcan who was stranded on Earth two centuries ago. I was testing for a reaction. He believes it was just a made up story, don't you Trip?"

"That yarn about Carbon Creek? Yeah, I remember. You are a great storyteller and I'll bet you could scare the heck out of a bunch of kids around a campfire."

Molly leaned toward T'Pol. "Are you bringing him with you when you visit my home town next week? I think he can be trusted. Then Molly looked straight at Trip. "Besides renewing your acquaintance with Velik, you can meet my cousin Kevin who is engaged to Velik's daughter. She always teases Kevin by saying "at least your ears are like mine and I can put makeup on those freckles if I ever decide to take you out in polite Vulcan society."

Molly studied Trip for a reaction.

Trip looked as if he had just entered the twilight zone while T'Pol smiled slightly. Trip looked at T'Pol, at Molly, and back at T'Pol. "What's going on here? Ya telling me there actually is a place on Earth where Vulcans and Humans…?"

"Yes," quipped Molly, "Let me tell you about my family. I will start by telling you my home town IS Carbon Creek."

16


End file.
